Jewellery - a consideration

When Mr absent and I were married I asked my mother if she would give her blessing to our using her mother's wedding ring. It is almost pure gold and so it is very soft. My grandmother, whose life was pretty hard, wore it every day for some 60 something years so it's very thin. My ma did give her blessing and it has been on my finger for 15 years now.

They can be named but people are reluctant to pay the extra (small) amount which is not available in the NHS charge

Crikey; you're not being silly at all, I don't know what I'd do either. I have my mum's wedding ring and my dad's gold watch. I now don't wear either of them because I'm scared of losing them, but, at the same time they're just sat in a drawer. Also my husbands's grandmothers engagement ring [I think they gave it to me because I'd never had one and also no one was particularly fond of her]. Someone I knew had all of her jewellery stolen [a lot of which had been handed down through the family] but she said, 'ah well; I've enjoyed it for years and now someone else will'. Strangely enough I was having this sort of conversation with my daughter and we agreed that at least with jewellery the person who stole it would most likely sell it on and the person who bought it [not knowing it was stolen] would love it. Can't say the same about false teeth though . Maybe theres a way of putting a mark on a new set of teeth with which to distinguish them [?].

I have two rings only, my wedding band which isn't the usual plain band, an engraved ring of Welsh gold, and my grandmothers wedding band. I am not a person given to superstitions but I realy am in a tiz over these rings, would someone make a decision for me please

Two daughters, two granddaughters, my wedding band is for the youngest granddaughter. but! Granny's ring, she died giving birth to my mother. My mother didn't wear the ring for years, when she did she had a nasty scald to her arm and hand and the ring was cut off.

I haven't had it repaired, have no wish to wear it, but I don't know what to do with it , cannot throw it away

Please don't tell me I am being silly - I know that

Granny23 !

Deedaa Old superstition was that anyone in possession of a caul would never drown. Sailors used to buy them from mothers of newborns. The story is told in the opening chapter of David Copperfield. Since mine went astray, I have noticed that none of the local binmen has drowned

Approx 50% of DH's work comes from people losing their teeth in hospital - you would think we paid them!

DeeDaa

`He had actually binned the caul in which I was born, which had successfully saved both my DM and DF from death by drowning`

Don't understand the bit about drowning, I thought a caul was a sort of sheath over the head of some babies when they are born.

On the subject of false teeth when my father was in hospital, not him luckily, but the man in the next bed had his teeth taken by another person on the ward and told his wife he couldn't eat any longer as he had no teeth.

I gave away almost all my jewellery to my daughters and grand-daughters when I stopped socialising. I kept only one valuable ring because I like the way the diamond sparkles in the sun when I am snorkelling! It was quite hard to divide it fairly as I have so many grand-daughters and I did wonder if I should have included the partners of my grandsons. I will leave the remaining ring to my eldest daughter in my will, and she can decide which of her three daughters will get it eventually.
Sometimes, when I read about people agonising over who gets what when they die, I am glad I have so few possessions. My little flat and 8-year old car are my only assets, apart from my books, which will also go to my eldest daughter, to add to her own enormous collection.

Ancient Uncle went into hospital (Broken hip) able to speak clearly and eat anything. He returned to his care home with teeth that flap up and down when he is talking, sometimes fall out and cause him difficulty when eating. I am convinced his teeth were mixed up with someone else's. BUT (and it is a big but) he insists that they are his teeth and refuses to see a dentist - 'Why should I pay all that for new teeth when these are fine?' he says. Well I think that is what he is saying.

DeeDaa BIL, anxious to help after my father died, threw out what he thought was an old hairnet wrapped in black tissue paper. He had actually binned the caul in which I was born, which had successfully saved both my DM and DF from death by drowning. He also binned the last rose of summer from my Dad's white rose bush. I had noticed it on the bush on the day he died and popped it in a glass, intending to wear it at his funeral. I could laugh about the caul, but the missing rose reduced me to tears.

Deedaa An elderly friend of mine wandered around the elderly care hospital ward where he was then being treated during afternoon rest time and collected up everyone's false teeth in a large plastic bag. I don't think they ever managed to sort out whose teeth were which.

The only thing the hospital lost when my father was rushed in was his false teeth - presumably this was carelessness rather than any one actually wanting them! Never did get them back.

After my mother died my children went to start sorting her house out so that I didn't have to. Unfortunately they didn't know quite how odd she had become and threw away several very nice rings, which she had taken to hiding in paper bags because she didn't think people would look for them there. Well she was right - my children didn't!

My friend's father passed away in hospital.
His son was at his bedside when he died. He left the room to phone his wife and tell her the news only to find upon his return that the wedding ring his father was wearing a few minutes earlier had disappeared.
This indecent was reported but the ring was never found.

It can some times be stolen by other patients. When my uncle was in a psychiatric hospital being treated for depression, it was the other patients doing the nicking. He would not let us take anything into him other than second-hand paperbacks from the charity shop because if they went missing (and they did) it didn't matter.

That's awful. When my mother died the undertaker gave me her rings in a lovely little pink ring box. I was very touched as I imagined they'd be returned in a poly bag. Her engagement ring is beautiful and I treasure it. It never occurred to me that they'd be pinched. How naive I am!

It's so sad when this happens it puts a bad light on everything doesn't it at a time when things are stressful enough,I made a decission yrs ago never to take jewellery into hospital with me and have kept to it after a lady I knew "lost" the little box containing her rings.My DD & DGDs are in line for my jewellery in years to come and I would hate anyone else to have the pleasure of them.

That's sad to hear overthehill but I'm keeping my rings, if only to stop my daughters arguing (lightheartedly!) about who has which!

Although some of my rings are fairly valuable, their true value is sentimental and, because of that, I'm going to continue to wear them myself. I do think it's a good idea to tell the family to remove them should one have to go into hospital.